Unless you live in Vancouver, you might not be familiar with Butter Baked Goods, a tiny bakery that specializes in homestyle baked goods, candies and desserts. Then again, you might have seen some of their products – like their well-known marshmallows – in retail stores because they are so popular that more than 300 retailers carry them. There is a lot more to the bakery than their signature marshmallows, however, and you’ll find all of their favorite recipes in Butter Baked Goods: Nostalgic Recipes From a Little Neighborhood Bakery.
You’ll get the impression that you’re looking through grandma’s own coobkook as you flip through the pages. The bakery’s signature pink and pistachio colors – and a generous serving of floral prints – are everywhere in the book, giving it a very vintage feel that makes the desserts seem authentically homemade. The book starts off with an introduction by Rosie Daykin, the founder of the bakery, that tells how she discovered she loved to bake and even includes a recipe for her first signature recipe. The rest of the introduction gives a brief overview of commonly used ingredients, equipment and techniques that you’ll need to make the most of the recipes. The recipes include everything from morning muffins and cinnamon buns to cakes, pies and candies. All of these are “everyday” recipes that don’t require a special occasion to make or to enjoy.
The photography is beautiful, but you’ll notice that the desserts aren’t all picture-perfect, with crusts that look like they were crimped by machine and icing piped on by robots. These slight imperfections make the desserts look homey and approachable, something that you could easily reproduce in your own kitchen without worrying that it won’t live up to the pictures in the book. Don’t get me wrong: the desserts look delicious, but they also look homemade and that is something that is wonderful to see in a book geared towards home bakers.
What do you think?